Monday, February 16, 2009

I don't know if its because of my addictive personality, because I haven't played a video game in a while, or because I'm a huge nerd, (probably all three) but I'm completely enthralled with Ogame, a free, text-based real-time space empire strategy game. A few months or so ago my friend Adam got my roommate, me, and a few others to sign up and since then I've been playing it more and more. If I paid as much attention to the stock market as I did to this, I think I might be a rich man.

The problem is, of course, that I'm playing the game when I should be writing, editing, or sending stories out. We'll see how my resolution to write first, play later goes.

ps. This story completely fascinated me. A new face!?! How amazing is that? What really impressed me was how the addition of nasal lining actually stimulated olfactory tissue in the brain and how her sense of taste was restored. I'm curious to see if immunosuppressants will actually work so that her body won't reject the new tissue. I've often wondered what long term side effects of taking such immunosuppresants would be on one's overall health.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

In my defense, I've been fighting a terrible cold for the past week, the details and symptoms of which I'll keep to myself. Its been hard dragging my sorry self to work and I've pretty much had no leftover energy to devote to such things as writing, working out, chores, or editing. Luckily I think I'm on the mend.

I will say that the illness bore some good fruit. Because coffee was drying my throat out and causing my mouth to feel like I was being choked with toffee, I switched to drinking green tea for my daily caffeine dosage.

And that, my friends, has definitely been a good thing. I did a little research. Green tea is WAY healthier for you. Maybe its psychosomatic, but I definitely feel better as I sip it. Also, I've noticed several overall health benefits. I sleep better. I don't have coffee breath. Not as jittery. Methinks that even after the illness has finally passed through my system, I may still make the switch permanent.

Anyway, I've been sipping tea and getting things done all day today, including cleaning up my bedroom, buying groceries, and... doing my taxes. The good news is, because of the interest I pay every year on my absurdly large student loans, I am getting a decent return.

The bad news is, I pay interest every year on absurdly large student loans. Sigh. But then again, I think of trips I made, the great semesters I had in Costa Rica, Peru, Ireland, and Chicago and even on campus at Aquinas, and I'm grateful. At least that's what I keep telling myself every month when I write the check.

So. Taxes done? Check. Room cleaned? Check? Actual food in kitchen? Check. Now that the bare necessities are out of the way, time to get back to working on my stories.

Speaking of which, the editor of Well Told Tales just informed me that, in addition to the audio version of my story being available on their podcast website, its also going to be broadcast on the radio this Saturday night. Here's what he had to say:

"One of our readers -- J.B. Goodspeed (a.k.a. Jacob Keebler) -- set it up. He has a three-hour block on Saturday nights, so after a couple of hours of his own music show, we'll get the third hour for "The Well Told Tales Radio Hour," slated to run at 11 p.m. PT on 92.5 The Why (http://925kyhy.com/.)"